Eric B. Epstein, Esq., M.S.

Skilled, Experienced & Compassionate

Seeking professional help is never easy. Deciding upon the professional you will trust to render that help and to provide effective and skilled marriage, relationship, individual or family therapy can be overwhelming. It is important to find someone who has lived through many different experiences necessary to develop knowledge, skill and, most importantly, perspective.

I have been fortunate to accumulate a vast amount of professional, personal and educational experiences and knowledge. I am licensed to practice law in both the States of Florida and New York, and I am a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator. In 2018, I added to my education and skills and became a Florida Registered Marriage and Family Therapist Intern License #IMT 2966. I am also honored to have been appointed as a member of the Standing Committee on Mental Health and Wellness of Florida Lawyers

To be honest, you have many choices of professionals from whom to seek therapy and to willingly open yourself up to experiencing vulnerability, uncomfortability and insecurity on your path your path towards reaching your goals. I am uniquely qualified to help you during this time in your life because I, too, have gone through the difficult journey of exploring myself to the core and thereafter understanding the importance of:

✓ The need to be open and vulnerable;

✓ How being “right” often leads to being “wrong”;

✓ Expressing emotions is healthy, important and not something to be afraid of;

✓ Reclaiming our passion in life and our true purpose and calling;

✓ Attaining the goals we have for our professional and personal lives;

✓ Professing that “I Can;” “I Will;” and “I Am;” and

✓Yearning to do what’s necessary and needed to be a better version of ourselves.

My Vision and Therapy Philosophy

As a married 50-year-old man with two teenage children, one of whom has “special-needs,” I am fortunate to have lived and experienced a wide-range of events in my life. While many of them have been positive and happy, many have been challenging and sad. Emotions, such as happiness, sadness, love and hatred, are universally felt by both men and women. However, the way these emotions are processed, expressed and acted upon can often be very different experiences for men and women.

Being a man does not endow me with any special ability to better provide therapy services to my clients. However, by combining my background as a Florida Licensed Attorney, Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator and as a mental health professional, I am able to help my clients – men, women, couples and families – explore their emotions about relationships, their professions and careers, children, marriage, divorce, aging, anxiety, depression, and trauma, from a unique perspective, background and life experience.

Some therapists have a model or philosophy that they strictly adhere to. When they work with a client, it becomes necessary to mold that therapeutic model to the client’s needs. I believe in the opposite. When providing therapy to clients, I figure out the client’s needs and then apply a therapeutic model or philosophy that best serves the client’s unique needs. Let me put it another way. If you went to a restaurant for dinner and told the waitress that you were allergic to dairy, would you want the chef to just remove dairy from his recipe and serve you the dish – regardless of how it would taste? Or would you prefer that the chef modify the recipe to meet your unique needs and then serve you a delicious dish without dairy?

My most fundamental therapy philosophy is that the “problem” is not the “person.” Rather, I view my clients as being in a relationship with their issue or problem – and we work together to understand that relationship and to create interventions to make that relationship healthier and productive in your life.

Educational Background

In 1991, I graduated from the New York University’s Stern school of Business with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Finance. I then attended the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City, and graduated in 1994 with a Juris Doctor Degree. In 2018, I earned my Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Nova Southeastern University. I focus on My combining my education, training and experience as an attorney, mediator, business owner, and mental health professional to provide a unique perspective to my clients, their partners and families.

Professional Experience

I have provided mental health services to a wide-range of clients, including children in Broward schools, hetero- and same-sex couples, individuals and have worked in a drug and alcohol residential treatment program providing services in the mature men’s program at Destination Hope. My clients have come to me with a myriad of issues that have been negatively impacting their lives, ranging from depression, anxiety, relationship issues and addiction. For almost 25 years, I have been a licensed attorney representing numerous clients dealing with a variety of legal problems. For the past several years, I have worked with couples to mediate their divorce-related issues as a Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator. As a professional for almost a quarter-century, I have developed maturity, skills and compassion for all of my clients, and am now ready and able to help you too.

I am the proud father of two children, one of whom is severely developmental disabled and suffers from chronic medical conditions.

Through the process of raising my daughter, and engaging with numerous other mothers and fathers of children with special-needs, I understand the need to help parents and family members as they traverse the never-ending and ever-changing paths that life has dealt us all.

Whatever problem or issue you may be facing, know you don’t have to face it alone. I am only a phone-call away.

Eric is a Florida Registered Marriage and Family Therapist Intern License #IMT 2966 providing marriage and family therapy services under the supervision of AnnaLynn Schooley, LMFT, License #MT 1591. I am also a Certified Family Trauma Professional, Licensed Attorney and Florida Supreme Court Certified Family Mediator.